Rhythm Magnets

Here are some magnets I made for different rhythms.  The length of each magnets corresponds to the number of beats (one beat = 6 inches).  I also color-coded the background of rhythm by the number of beats represented (which matches the rhythm bulletin board).  This will be a very visual way to see the relationships between different rhythmic values and to create measures with different note values.

The documents have the rhythms already spaced out--just cut on the line (or cut it slightly smaller than the lines to make room for a colored border).  The longer values (whole note, dotted-half note, etc.) will need extra white paper on either end to make them the corresponding length.  Then, after laminating, I just cut strips of adhesive magnetic sheets to finish them off.

I'm able to use these on the white board or on my teacher desk, as both are magnetic.

• Rhythms (Word document)
• Rhythms (PDF)  

Now Playing Signs

Since I have such limited time with my students, I want to make the most of any opportunity to create a musical experience for them.  One such opportunity presents itself when students stop in the orchestra room before school to drop off their instruments and again at the end of the day when students pick them up to take home.  I try to always have music playing during these times to expose students to music of different composers and styles.  On the CD player cabinet, I have a magnetic sign that says "Now playing music by" along with the composer's name so students have an idea of what they're hearing as they walk by.  I tend to stick with the same composer for a week or two before switching it up.  This would also work for a composer-of-the-month theme or as a way to indicate what is being played as background music during in-class writing activities.

I had been using taped-on, hand-written labels, but this summer I had a lot of fun playing around with different fonts and color combinations with my mom's Cricut for these signs:

  

 

Looking forward to trying these out in the fall!

Magnets

You can make a lot of handy classroom tools with a laminator and magnets :)

The clefs and notes come from a package of musical symbols, and I made the instrument labels with a Cricut cutting machine.  These are easy to see from even the back of the room (though my color choices were maybe not contrasting enough on the instrument labels), and having these movable notes saves on time in class and dry-erase marker usage.  Because I mostly use quarter notes on the board, I cut the dots off the dotted quarter notes and the flags off the single eighth notes (and I cut the note-heads off the single sixteenth notes and glued them on top of the half notes) to create more of the quarter notes.  The alto clef came from a Google image search.

I use these magnets most often when introducing new notes to my students.  For practice, I'll have a student come up and point to different notes and their classmates will play what they see, performing this improvised creation.  Then, if I have a small group of, say, violas followed by a cello or violin group, it's easy to move the notes up or down on the staff as needed as the kids are coming in and unpacking versus erasing the marker and drawing new notes.  One of my schools has a white board with the staff lines built in to the board, which is great for a music classroom.  For my other school, I bought a sheet that goes right over part of the white board and has three staves on it. 

Note: since then, my school bought a double-sided whiteboard on wheels for the band/orchestra room.  One side has staff lines, which is much appreciated, and the other side is plain white.  I also have enough magnets now to post the five notes for violin/viola/cello all at once so I don't have to switch them for each new instrument group.